Tuesdays With Dorie – Rugelach

by Gabi // 2008/11/04

Time for Tuesdays With Dorie again! This week the recipe, chosen by Grace at Piggy’s Cooking Journal, is Rugelach from pages 150-151 of “Baking: From My Home To Yours”, by Dorie Greenspan. These were fun to make and are quite delicious. Dorie says to make the recipe your own by adding or changing and so that’s what I did. I changed the recommended raspberry or apricot jam to (of course) cherry- this time using Chokecherry Jam. I changed the currants to finely chopped dried Montmorency Cherries, used Alpaco Valrhona 66% bittersweet chocolate chopped finely and slivered almonds for the nuts. I think the combination is delicious. Rick called me to say he wished he’d taken more than two for his morning break at work. I think that’s a winner!

As usual, I didn’t have room in my fridge for a baking tray so I wrapped them well and put them outside in the cold on the hood of my Jeep to chill before baking. Luckily my neighbors are used to such wackiness from me and don’t call to inquire as to why I have foods in various stages as hood ornaments. Mind you- this only works in Winter- okay cold Fall. I could probably have let them chill a bit longer but it was approaching 9:00pm and I had other things to do. On baking two of mine fell apart but we sacrificed them to the tasting Gods and considered it good. I invite you to go on over to the TWD blogroll and check out all the other tasty treats there. A special thanks to Laurie from Quirky Cupcake for starting TWD, to Grace for choosing the Rugelach and ultimately to Dorie for such a great book!

“I’m too sexy for my Crust!”- Italian Bittersweet Chocolate Silk Pie

by Gabi // 2008/11/03

Have you seen the movie “Waitress”? If not, you’re missing out on a lovely, quirky, humorous, heart-wrenching piece of American pie! Adrienne Shelly wrote, directed and acted in it- all brilliantly! Please take the time to visit the foundation set up in her honor after she was senselessly murdered before ever having the opportunity to enjoy the success of this work.

In the movie the main character, Jenna, is a brilliant pie baker-maker, who comes up with inventive pies that express her imagination and the emotion of her marriage of unfortunate circumstances- “I don’t want Earl’s Baby Pie”, “Kick in the Pants Pie”, “Bad Baby Pie” and “Sad Chicago Pie” to name a few. Her ambition is to win $25,000 in a pie baking contest, leave her bad husband and change her life for the better. A group of lovely bloggers over at You Want Pies With That? have decided to hold a once monthly blog event and pie extravaganza to have fun with themed pies. I decided I couldn’t miss out on the chance to join in the fun so here is my first entry to YWPWT round #2 -Pies as a Fashion Statement hosted this month by my friend the lovely, lovely Holly of Phemomenon.

My entry is a cross between a cheesecake and a silk pie, it’s a silky classic cut of pie:

I’m Too Sexy for my Crust- Italian Bittersweet Chocolate Silk Pie

Crust

20 chocolate sandwich cookies, crumbled. I use Whole Foods Back to Nature Classic Creme cookies instead of Oreos- imho they taste better and no transfats.
2 Tablespoons melted butter
3 teaspoons milk

Pulse the cookies in a food processor or roll with a rolling pin until very fine. Put in a bowl and pour the melted butter and milk in and mix well until everything is evenly incorporated. Press into a 9 inch pie plate and evenly make a crust on the bottom and up the sides pressing well. Chill in the fridge for about 10 minutes and bake in a 325F oven for about 8 minutes. Cool completely.

Filling

4 ounces of Bittersweet Chocolate, melted
3/4lb of Mascarpone cheese, softened
1/2 Tablespoon of instant espresso powder
1 Tablespoon boiling water
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup chilled whipping cream, whipped with 1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar

Put the pie crust into the fridge to chill while you make the filling. Stir the mascarpone in a medium sized bowl until smooth. Dissolve the espresso powder in the boiling water and add to the cheese along with the vanilla extract. Stir until smooth. Add the chocolate and stir just until evenly blended. Add 1/2 cup of the whipped cream and fold in just until smooth. Fill the pie crust and smooth the top. Top with the remaining whipped cream and chill the pie for a couple of hours before serving.

Have a piece on the catwalk…on the catwalk!

Thanks for letting me join in! Go on over to the YWPWT site and check out all the other pie fashionistas here!

Happy Howl-oh-ween! Caramel Apples!

by Gabi // 2008/10/31

Caramel apples are one of those things of times past. When I was a little kid we could go to the houses of people we knew and get home made treats of caramel apples, popcorn balls, donuts and huge sugar cookies. Rick had a neighbor lady that loaded an entire banquet table with home baked goodies and the kids were left to take what they wanted and expected to leave some for the rest next to come. Catch that happening now!

These things were made from scratch. No stranger-danger and all good ingredients -not filled with high fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated oils. Now days you can pay around $8.00 for a caramel apple in a candy shop or make some yourself. Make some buttery caramel and dip washed and dried apples with sturdy sticks put into the stem end into it. Let them set up on a parchment lined baking sheet. If you really want to tart it up dip them in bittersweet chocolate and chopped nuts or other goodies to finish. Rick is a purist and says” Bah!” to my embellishments! 🙂

Caramels

2 cups white sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup corn or cane syrup
1 cup evaporated milk
1 pint heavy whipping cream
1 cup butter
1 1/4 teaspoons vanilla extract

In a heavy bottomed pot combine all ingredients except the vanilla and cook stirring constantly to about 240F for my high altitude- (start at 250F for sea level and subtract a degree for every 500ft above that.) Dip your apples and place on parchment to cool. Or you can pour into a buttered pan and cut into squares for caramels. Top with a bit of Fleur De Sel and you’ll have lovely salted caramels.

Kipling says -“Whats all this fuss about?!-Just PLEASE give me some bits of that butter…!”